No pressure, then. This year is the 25th anniversary of the Zelda games; the Wii, we now know, is about to be superseded by the Wii U, so it needs a massive, must-buy game for it last big Christmas in the shops; and it has been five years since the last Zelda game on a console, Twilight Princess.

Factor in the general opinion that several of the Zelda games are many people's choice for best game ever, and it becomes even clearer that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword had to be near-perfect.

And that, of course, is exactly what it is. This time around, we catch up with a teenage Link, living in Skyloft, a town on an island floating in the sky above an unnamed land which may or may not be Hyrule. He's at the academy training to be a knight, and begins with a rite-of-passage flying race, on the giant birds that all of Skyloft's inhabitants have for transport.

For once, he gets some quality time with Zelda herself, but before long, she has become the victim of a malevolent force and spirited to the surface of the planet. Link, naturally, turns out to be the chosen one as far as releasing the shackles from the land below (known only as the Surface) and, after acquiring an Excalibur-like sword and opening a hole in the clouds below Skyloft, he sets off for some classic adventuring, accompanied by a spirit called Fi.

And classic is the operative word. Skyward Sword is the first Zelda game designed from the start for the Wii's unique abilities and, as Link's sword has always been his mainstay, he's now able to wield it with precision: its movements mimic any motion you apply to the Wiimote.

So, the early bosses require you to show an appreciation of swordsmanship and a delicacy of movement, which is refreshing. But before you get to those, you acquire some other handy weaponry, most notably a slingshot and a flying beetle that is reminiscent of Batman's remote-controlled Batarang, only much easier to control. The latter is great, fulfilling many functions including hitting switches and snipping wires to send giant spiders or crates crashing to the ground.

As you would expect from a Zelda game, there's plenty of platform-style action, and a glorious set of puzzles which are all wildly inventive. You might have to shake objects out of trees using Link's run-and-roll attack, or swing from rope to rope by waving the Wiimote. Link can also use his sword to dowse, giving him an indication of where he needs to go to catch up with Zelda.

Despite the typically enchanting nature of the game, its difficulty level can be quite high at times. There are plenty of sub-quests to perform, and periodically, Link has to return to Skyloft, to help people out and restock potions, ammo and shields (which disintegrate annoyingly quickly).

Graphically, Skyward Sword adopts a more cartoony style than Twilight Princess – somewhere roughly equidistant between that game and the Wind Waker. Which seems pretty judicious, although it will spark debate among the Zelda-heads.

The game does rather highlight the Wii's graphical limitations. But what it lacks in visual crispness, it more than makes up for in terms of immersiveness (when wielding the Wiimote as a sword, you really feel like you are Link), its storyline and its astonishing meatiness – how Nintendo managed to fit it on one CD isn't far short of miraculous.

As with all the best Zelda games, the world in which it is set is endlessly enchanting – indeed, a far nicer place to be than the one in which we live, even though darker edges often manifest themselves.

Countless Zelda tropes are in evidence – you can, for example, harvest pumpkins in a quest for rupees, or hunt bugs with a net. But perhaps the most striking thing about Skyward Sword is the perfect way in which it ebbs and flows, following intense periods with restful ones, leaving you feeling as though you've been on a journey. You can really feel the quarter-century of game-design experience that underpins it.

If you own a Wii, do we even need to advise you to buy it? Whether or not it's the best ever Zelda game is open to debate, but it's certainly up there. However, nobody could argue that it's anything less than a masterclass in the art of crafting video games.